THE RELATIONS OF THE COLLEGE 
TO THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 



THE RELATIONS OF THE 
COLLEGE TO THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE 



COMMENCEMENT 
Of Union College, 



u 



June 24, 1885. 
By DAVID MURRAY, LL. D 

HONORARY CHANCELLOR FOR 1885. 



ALBANY : 

CHARLES VAN BENTHUYSEN & SONS. 

1885. 






2«()34 



^ 



to 



CHANCELLOR'S ADDRESS. 



I propose to speak to you to-day on the subject which of 
all others comes most naturally to our minds, that is, on the 
proper aims, purposes and plans of a college. And lest 
this subject may be found too broad to be compassed in 
the brief time which I am to occupy, I will limit myself 
chiefly to a discussion of the relations of the college to the 
learned professions. 

Let us begin by settling what we shall understand to be 
meant by the learned professions. Originally, and down to 
a comparatively recent period, the term was understood to 
refer exclusively to the three professions of divinity, law and 
medicine. But the increased complexity of modern society, 
and the necessity of a knowledge of the profoundest laws of 
nature in various human industries, have led to the institu- 
tion of other vocations which may fairly lay claim to the 
same dignity. We have no hesitation in adding to this 
honorable and venerable trio the professions of the archi- 
tect and engineer, the chemist and metallurgist, the editor 
and the teacher. Each of these callings relies mainly 
on the labor of the brain. They are distinctively the think- 
ing professions, requiring for their successful pursuit the 
trained intellect rather than the skilful hand. To succeed 
in them, still more to rise to eminence in them, calls for 
not merely the common sense of ordinary life, but the wis^ 
dom and insight which are derived from the profound study 
of the phenomena of matter and mind. 

Starting from this basis for our inquiry, let us see how 
the college stands related to these learned professions. We 



will take the State of New York as furnishing illustrations 
and examples both of the college and the professions. 
According to the census of 1880 the population of New 
York was 5.082,982. How many the census of 1885 would 
have shown, alas ! we shall never know. By the same cen- 
sus of 1880 there were in the State 6,701 clergymen, 9,459 
lawyers, 9,272 physicians, 1,806 architects and engineers, 
391 chemists and metallurgists, 2,1 1 1 journalists and literary 
men, of whom, say, i ,000 are in positions where a liberal edu- 
cation is essential. To these add 675 professors in colleges, 
and 650 principals and chief assistants in academies, high 
schools and other leading schools, aggregating, say, 1,325 
college-bred men who make teaching a permanent profession. 
Thus we have a total number of about 30,000 persons who 
are in positions where a liberal education may fairly be con- 
sidered an indispensable requisite. I do not mean to assert 
that all this number in the present condition of things are to 
be counted as educated men. On the contrary, it is the 
disgrace of our State and of the whole country that persons 
utterly unfitted by character and education have crowded 
into these professions, until they are overrun with ignorance 
and incompetence. But the fact still remains that the State 
of New York has more than 30,000 places which call for 
educated men, and which educated men alone can ade- 
quately and properly fill. 

Now,of every thousand of these educated men about twelve 
each year attain the age of seventy years; and may be re- 
garded as withdrawn from the active practice of their call- 
ings ; and about eighteen more die before reaching the age 
of seventy. That is, about thirty out of every thousand each 
year are retired from their professions ; or in the whole 
30,000 there are 900 persons who move on and make room 
for 900 others to take their places. 

We may estimate it roughly that we require each year, 
200 new clergymen ; 
290 new lawyers ; 



5 

28o new physicians ; 

60 new engineers, chemists, etc. ; 

30 new authors and journahsts ; 

40 new professors, head-masters, etc. ; 
that is, 900 new recruits to the learned professions. Of 
course you understand that this estimate refers to the State 
of New York only. If we were to include in our estimate ■ 
the openings which the sons of New York have made and 
are yearly making for themselves in those parts of the 
country where the native crop of educated men is still in- 
sufficient, we might largely increase the number of avail- 
able places in the learned professions which are awaiting 
your advent. But against this must be put the invasion 
into our territory, especially into our large cities, of a very 
considerable number of ambitious young men from other 
States, who come in to push and jostle us, and claim a 
goodly share of our places of honor and trust; and these 
may perhaps make an even offset for the like advantages 
we gain in other States. 

We have called these professions learned, because they 
call for a liberal education on the part of those entering 
them. Now, what is a liberal education? I do not pro- 
pose to have much to say of the technical education 
which each profession demands. That is not specially my 
purpose. The lawyer must of course make himself familiar 
with the laws and the procedure of courts ; the doctor must 
learn the nature and potency of drugs ; the engineer must 
acquire the use of the formulae and instruments of his pro- 
fession. These constitute the necessary routine of these 
several callings. A man may, however, learn all this and still 
be in no true and broad sense a man of liberal education. The 
education which we have to consider underlies and co-exists 
with the special and technical knowledge which is demanded 
of the professional man. It is designed to develop and 
quicken his intellectual powers and put them under his 
control in the same sense that the well-trained athlete has 
his niuscles under his control. His memory and imagina- 



tion, his judgment and reai^oning faculties must be strength- 
ened and trained to prompt and decisive action. His taste 
as to the beautiful, his perception of the right, his humane 
and patriotic impulses, his self-control, his patience amid 
difficulties, his persistence against obstacles must be devel- 
oped and cultivated. Besides this he must be sui)plied with 
that common stock of knowledge which we look for in every 
educated man, and which is the medium of exchange by 
which men of varied occupations and interests can find 
pleasure and profit in mutual intercourse. 

This general intellectual and moral training ought to pre- 
cede and lead up to the special professional training. It is 
a necessary and fitting preparation for any considerable 
achievement in any one of the professions. 

In the older countries of Europe, where the intense com- 
petitions of life have made necessary a more careful regula- 
tion of the various privileged vocations, the necessity for 
this preliminary as well as professional education has been 
recognized and provided for. It is not merely in the laws 
which have been framed that we find such requirements for 
general culture on the part of those entering the professions. 
The demands of public sentiment and of the sentiment 
within the professions themselves are even more emphatic 
and influential than the laws in enforcing a high standard 
of general as well as technical education. In Prussia, where 
the philosophy of education has been carried to its highest 
perfection, the requirements for entrance into any one of the 
professions are very definitely fixed, and pertain to literary 
as well as professional preparation. If you wish to be- 
come a lawyer in Prussia, this is the course of preparation 
which you would be compelled to follow : You must take 
a complete course in the Gymnasium* which extends from 
the age of nine to eighteen or twenty. The studies com- 
prise Latin and Greek, mathematics and natural science, 
history and geography, the mother tongue and at least one 
other modern language. The ground would conform in 

* See the study-plan of the Gymnashini in note on page 19. 



extent to what would be covered in this State by a good 
preparatory course in a high school or academy, together 
with about two years in college. Then you must go to the 
university and enter yourself as a student in the faculty of 
law. Here you must study at least three years, attending 
the lectures upon Roman law, international law, juris- 
prudence, history of law, civil and criminal procedure, 
German and Prussian public law, etc., etc. These subjects 
are treated in a profound and philosophical manner which 
is only comprehensible by those prepared for it by a long 
and thorough training in classics and history, and ancient 
and modern literature. At the close of this residence at 
the university you are permitted to enter yourself for the 
State examination in law. This is conducted under the 
direction of a State commissioner, who, upon your success- 
fully passing it, grants you a certificate to that effect. You 
are then assigned to a bureau of legal administration, where 
for a year or more you are expected to make yourself use- 
ful in such service as may be demanded of you, and where 
you learn the practical procedure in the administration of 
justice. At the end of this apprenticeship, if you have 
approved yourself competent, you may be admitted as an 
advocate. With powers matured and trained, and with an 
accumulated store of general and professional learning at 
your command, you are allowed to class yourself among the 
privileged number of those who may be employed in the 
administration of the laws. 

In France, admission to the professions is equally guarded. 
As an illustration take a candidate for the profession of an 
advocate. Before he can begin the study of law he must 
be a bachelor of letters, which corresponds to our bachelor 
of arts. Then he must attend two years the lectures in a 
faculty of law, and must pass two examinations, one in 
Justinian's Institutes and the other in Code Napoleon, the 
penal code and the codes of civil procedure and criminal 
jurisprudence. This entitles him to the degree of bachelor 
of law. In order to become a licenciate of law and have 



8 

the right to practice, the bacliclor must then attend a 
third year's lectures in a faculty of law and undergo two 
more examinations, one on the Institutes of Justinian and 
a second on Code Napoleon, the code of commerce and 
administrative law, and finally must prepare and defend a 
thesis on questions both in Roman and French law. 

The training for the learned professions in England is 
scarcely less exacting than that just described. For admis- 
sion as a solicitor the candidate must pass a preliminary, an 
intermediate and a final examination. Persons are exempt 
from the preliminary examination who have taken a degree 
at one of the universities, or who have passed certain speci- 
fied examinations at the universities. The preliminary 
examination consists of the following: Writing from dicta- 
tion, writing an English composition, arithmetic, geography 
of Europe, history of England, elementary Latin, together 
with two languages selected by the candidate from the six 
following: Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish and 
Italian. The examiners give notice of the work in each 
language in which the examination will be had. This pre- 
liminary examination occupies two days and is in writing. 
In difficulty it will compare fairly with the entrance examina- 
tion to one of our New York colleges. After passing this 
examination the candidate must enter into articles of agree- 
ment to serve as clerk to a solicitor for five years ; but 
persons who have taken a degree at a university have to 
serve only three years. When half his term of clerkship 
has expired, he must present himself for his intermediate 
examination: The subjects are liable to change, but are 
about equivalent to the following : Stephen's Commentaries 
on the laws of England, judicature acts and rules, law of 
real and personal property, equity jurisprudence and com- 
mon law. At the close of his clerkship he must pass his 
final examination. To this there are no exceptions. The 
subjects are of two classes, obligatory and optional. The 
obligatory subjects are essentially as follows : . 



1. Matters usually determined or administered in the 
Chancery division of the High Court of Justice. 

2. Matters usually determined or administered in the 
Queen's Bench division of the High Court of Justice. 

3- Principles of the law of real and personal property and 
the practice of conveyancing. 

The optional subjects must also be passed by those 
who desire to enter for the honors or prizes which are 
awarded at the examination. They are as follows : 

4. The law and practice of bankruptcy. 

5. Criminal law, and the practice before justices of the 
peace. 

6. The law and practice of the Probate, Divorce and 
Admiralty divisions of the High Court of Justice, and 
ecclesiastical law and practice. 

The profession of barrister in England is entirely distinct 
from that of solicitor. Admission as a barrister is gained 
through the Inns of Court, which are societies in London 
endowed by law with authority to examine and admit 
candidates. There are four such societies, which hold the 
place of schools of law, viz. : Inner Temple, Middle Temple, 
Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn. Before a person can enter 
as a student of law in one of the Inns of Court, he must 
satisfy the council of legal education of his qualifications in 
general knowledge. Barristers are almost always university 
men, and a degree from a university or a certificate of having 
pas^'^d one of the public examinations at a university is 
accepted as evidence of sufficient general education. Other- 
wise, the candidate must be examined in the English 
language, the Latin language and English history. The 
Latin examination is about equivalent to our college entrance 
examination in Latin. Having been entered at the Inn, he 
must, before applying for his final examination, have kept 
twelve terms, of which there are four in the year, that is, 
must have been constructively in residence for three years, 
and must have attained the age of twenty-one years. After 
keeping at least four terms, that is, after the lapse of at least 



lO 

a year, the student may present himself for the examination 
in Roman law. This is an examination upon Justinian's 
Institutes, which may be studied in a translation. The final 
examination is upon English law. The examination lasts 
three days and comprises all the branches of the law of real 
and personal property, common law and equity. There 
arc also certain prizes and studentships, for which there is 
a further and much more difficult examination. The student 
then usually reads law for a time with some barrister in 
actual practice, in order to make himself familiar with the 
practical details of his profession. After this lie is in a 
position to be called to the bar. 

The usual preparation for professional study in England 
is, however, much more rigorous than that described above. 
The bo}' destined for a learned career is sent to one 
of the great classical schools, such as Eton, Rugby, 
Harrow or Winchester. Here he is subjected to a severe 
and prolonged course in classics, mathematics and ele- 
mentary science. He leaves the school and enters the 
university at the age of eighteen or twenty. If he is ambi- 
tious for scholastic reputation he must enter on a competi- 
tion for honors and prizes, which taxes not only his powers 
of mind, but his endurance of body. The honor-man of 
an English university, when he finishes his university career 
and enters on the study of his profession, is the most per- 
fectly trained animal in existence. The English hunter is 
not more surely the most superb and magnificent specimen 
of the horse than is the Cambridge wrangler or the Oxford 
first-class man the most splendid type of intellectual man- 
hood. 

Let us now inquire what we have in our State of New 
York to correspond with these systems of preparation for 
the learned professions. We are at once struck with this 
great diff"erence, that while in the great countries just men- 
tioned an adequate preliminary education is enforced by the 
regulations of the professions or made obligatory by legal 
enactment, in this country admission to the professions is 



1 1 

almost free. As a consequence of this facility of admission, 
there is no such uniform standard of culture and education 
as is found in the same classes in Europe. We have law- 
yers who, in learning and ability, are the peers of any in the 
world ; but the legal profession as a whole stands immeas- 
urab'y below those of many other countries. The same is 
true of nearly all the professions. But I am not ready to 
admit that the American system does not after all furnish 
facilities for preparing for the learned callings which if 
judiciousl}^ employed are equal to those described. The 
fault of our system is, that it does not compel every one to 
submit to this preparation, and as a consequence there are 
among our professional men many who can lay no claim 
to be considered educated. This does not, however, prevent 
those who desire to rise to eminence in their professions 
from securing the means to acquire the highest culture and 
preparation. While, therefore, oui* system does not secure 
so high a general standard, it has produced men in every 
one of the learned professions who will bear comparison 
with the most noted names of other lands. 

Now, what opportunities does our New York system of 
education offer to a young man looking forward to a profes- 
sional career? In the first place we have the public school 
free to all, where the elementary branches can be learned ; 
and it must be conceded that this opens the way to many 
bright minds who otherwise would never enter upon an in- 
tellectual career. We have our fitting schools and academies, 
which provide a training extending through five or six 
years, where the scholar may become well grounded in 
classics and mathematics, with a general knowledge of 
elementary science, history and geography. If he is so 
disposed, he may also gain some knowledge of modern lan- 
guages. With this outfit he is ready for college, which he 
can enter when sixteen to eighteen years of age. He is not 
the finished scholar that the German Gymnasunn or the 
English endowed school turns out. His training in general 
has been less exact, and he is usually two or three years 



12 

younger than his European counterpart when entering the 
university. But he is a splendid fellow, full of buoyant 
ambition and ready to undertake any task which the college 
lays on him. Now what can the college do for him? 

And this brings me to explain somewhat more in detail 
what I think the college ought to do for the young man 
who comes to it for an education. I have said that the 
learned professions are distinguished from other vocations 
in that they rely for their results more on the labor of the 
brain than on the skill of the hand. The chief end then 
to be attained in tire education of our professional aspirant 
is to develop his powers of intellect. Each of the profes- 
sions has this in common with all the others, that it calls for 
good brain-work. So far, therefore, as this intellectual 
training is concerned, it is essentially the same for all, and 
may be secured by the pursuit of the same studies. At 
this point of development we do not require one college for 
those who are to be clergymen, and another for lawyers, 
and another for engineers. It is better that they grow 
together and receive the same tillage. The commingling 
of men of varying minds, of diverse temperaments, and 
starting out with different plans and purposes of life, is an 
advantage to each. 

It must be remembered also that every member of a pro- 
fession is also a member of the great social organization, and 
that liis education must be such as to fit him not only for one, 
but all his functions in society. A man cannot be a lawyer 
and nothing else, or a physician and nothing else. Eight or 
ten hours of the day perhaps he may be immersed in profes- 
sional concerns, but what is he and where is he during the 
remainder of the twenty-four? His friends demand that he 
shall be a friend to them in turn, and reciprocate by his good 
fellowship the pleasure which he seeks from them. His family 
looks to him for instruction and aid in their plans and pur- 
suits, which may be wide apart from his own. The com- 
munity in which he lives gathers around him for counsel in 
things of common concern, and would be justly disappointed 



13 

to find that, in spite of his skill in his profession, he was a fool 
in everything else. The more prominent and expert he 
shows himself in his profession, the more his fellow citizens 
look to him for leadership in public affairs. In our country 
every man, whether he wishes it or not, is a public man and is 
expected to hold himself ready at his country's call to sacri- 
fice his private interests to the public service. It is for rea- 
sons such as these, that the education of the professional 
man must spread out into accomplishments far beyond the 
limits of his own special calling. We are not content that 
our lawyer should know only law. We may call upon him 
to serve us as governor or president, and he must be 
ready for the call. We send our doctors to congress, and 
they must know something more than how to amputate legs 
and arms. We make our college professors our diplo- 
matists, and thanks to their culture and intelligence they do 
not discredit us. It is mainly on his college training that 
the professional man must depend for preparing him to 
respond creditably to these various calls. And it is to meet 
this demand for culture, intelligence and intellectual versa- 
tility that the curriculum of a college should be planned. 

What this curriculum ought to be, is a problem on which 
a vast amount of thought has been expended. It is a 
problem not yet solved. Educators of the highest distinc- 
tion hold views widely divergent. The truth of the matter 
probably is, that there may be many plans of study for a col- 
lege which will almost equally well secure the desired result. 
Any study or series of studies may be the instrument for 
waking into activity * the dormant energies of a human soul. 
It was geology which was Hugh Miller's school and school- 
master. It was the study of the physical sciences which 
started Joseph Henry on his splendid career. It was read- 
ing the English Bible which educated John Bunyan. I have 

* Many eminent men have undergone the discipline of business ; many, like 
Franklin, have been self-disciplined, but I have never heard of a person who 
had risen to intellectual eminence without voluntary submission to an intellec- 
tual discipline of some kind. — Hammertoii' s Intellecttial Life, p. 50. 



14 

seen young men aroused into intellectual life by becoming 
interested in a single study, like botany, or chemistry, and 
going on from this one success, attain successes everywhere. 
But exceptional results, such as these, cannot be made the 
basis for a system of education. Our college course must 
be planned for the average, healthy mind. It must make 
provision for a steady, normal development of the intel- 
lectual powers by well-considered successive steps in study. 
By the common consent of educators in all lands the best 
discipline is secured by a mixed curriculum of languages, 
mathematics, science and philosophy. We have never seen 
any reason for losing faith in what is known in America as 
the "regular college course" as the best curriculum for 
the average young man. 

In the first place, the students entering college, even those 
with the best preparation, need a continuation of the disci- 
plinary drill begun in the preparatory school in order to 
train their minds to orderly and continuous work. They 
are still too young, with minds too immature, to enter upon 
the advanced problems of science and philosophy. We 
must always take it for granted that many young men come 
to college with very imperfect preparation. The deficiency 
is not always in the amount of their attainments, but much 
oftener in their habits of study and powers of continuous 
thought. They come with a little Latin and less Greek 
and a smattering of mathematics, but with minds untrained. 
The first thing to be done with them in college is what in 
military phrase is called " setting up." They must be put 
into the " awkward squad," and by a course of drill under 
competent drill-masters must be taught the intellectual 
manual of arms. For this purpose nothing has ever been 
found so effective as the study of the classical languages 
and mathematics. Other studies may and ought to be 
intermingled with these, but for two years of our college 
course I would keep as the main purpose the development 
of the intellectual powers of the student, using as the instru- 
ments for accomplishing this result the well-tried studies of 



IS 

the classics and mathematics. I would always include in 
the curriculum, especially during the early years, a per- 
sistent, obligatory course of instruction and of exercises in 
the mother tongue. Human knowledge, without the ability 
to give it due expression, is of small value. Young men 
often groan over the requirements in English composition 
and public speaking, but there is nothing for which they are 
more grateful in later years than that they were compelled 
in their college course to give attention to the easy, grace- 
ful and perspicuous expression of their thoughts in writing 
and in speech. 1 would combine also with the disciplinary 
studies of these early years others which are chiefly valuable 
for the facts they impart. Dr. Arnold says : " It is so hard 
to begin anything in after-life and so comparatively easy to 
continue what has been begun, that I think we are bound 
to break ground, as it were, into several of the mines of 
knowledge with our pupils, that the first difficulties may be 
overcome by them while there is yet a power from with- 
out to aid their own faltering resolution, and that they may 
be enabled, if they Avish, to go on with the study hereafter." 
The elements, at least, of the descriptive sciences, such as 
geology, physical geography, botany, zoology and physi- 
ology, should be known to every man who is to be called 
educated. To this extent I would require that every student 
should be familiar with such branches. Beyond this ele- 
mentary knowledge these subjects should be pursued as 
special studies to be taken up in the later years of the 
course and to be treated in a manner requiring the highest 
exercise of the mental powers. 

Gradually the range of studies in the college course should 
be widened, keeping pace with the development of the 
student's powers of comprehension. In the Junior year 
we may introduce studies not only more difficult, but 
different in kind. The group of studies connected with 
language may take a more philosophical aspect and widen 
out into comparative philology and literature. It is need- 
less to say that I mean the classics to be taught throughout 



i6 

in a sensible and philosophical manner. It is not surpris- 
ing that students revolt against the endless grammatical 
drudgery which often passes for classical learning. The 
great authors of Greece and Rome are worthy of better 
treatment. They should be read not merely for their lin- 
guistic peculiarities, but much more for the matter and 
literary style, in which they will always furnish us with the 
most perfect models. The reading* of these authors should 
be made to serve as an introduction into the history and 
culture of antiquity. 

The mathematical training of the student prepares him 
for the advanced study of physics and chemistry and 
astronomy. The problems of organized society as they 
are presented in history, political science and constitutional 
and international law, form the studies demanding the use 
of those powers which his early training has put at his com- 
mand. Formal logic, ethics and metaphysics rise still higher 
in their requirement of mental insight and connected 
thought, and may well be deferred till the advantages of 
age, development and training are all on the side of the 
student. These studies thus roughly grouped compose the 
regular course of the American college. They present diffi- 
culties of precisely the kind which the professional man will 
encounter in the practice of his future calling. The man 
who can investigate scientifically the hypothetical prob- 
lems of science in the college laboratory has acquired the 
ability to do the same as a p'rofessional chemist. He who 
has mastered the questions of political economy and ethics 
and jurisprudence, as they arise in his college course, may 
be trusted to do the same thing when the exigencies of his 
profession call for a like exercise of his powers. The 
methods to be employed, the powers of discernment, of 
analysis and statement, which are called for in his college 
course, are those which will be in requisition in the practice 
of his profession. And so it comes to pass that, while the 

* Those of my hearers who liad the privilege of reading Plato with Pro- 
fessor Tayler Pewis will know what I mean. 



problems and difficulties which he has met in his college 
course may never reappear in the same precise form in 
practical life, yet the method of work, the sense of power 
and confidence which he has acquired will fit him to en- 
counter an infinite variety of even greater difficulties. 

It is time now to say something of two or three practical 
questions which are much discussed, relating to college 
courses of study. The first of these is, " Is it best in a 
college course to exact from all the study of Latin and 
Greek? " 

I am ready to say without hesitation that any young man 
purposing to enter one of the learned professions will be 
better prepared for it by a thorough classical training. 
But as we- expect in our colleges to educate many young 
men who will not enter professions, I am also prepared to 
concede that we may, with economy and profit, establish 
alongside of the classical course, other courses in which 
modern languages and other branches may be substituted for 
the ancient languages. But we are dealing now with those 
who intend to enter the learned professions and who expect to 
make for themselves an honorable position in them, and for 
these I am perfectly assured that a classical training is by far 
the best preparation. Take this illustration : Suppose two 
boys of equal ability ; give the one a hard drilling in Latin 
and Greek and mathematics, preparatory to entering college ; 
then in college give him a well-ordered course in classics, 
history, literature, rhetoric and mathematics, say, up to the 
end of the Sophomore year. Now, take the other boy, pre- 
pare him for college by the study of the descriptive sciences, 
such as botany, zoology and physical geography, and of 
mathematics and experimental physics ; by readings in Eng- 
lish literature and by lessons in conversational French and Ger- 
man. (You see I am providing a really good education.) 
Then in college let him take what is commonly known as the 
scientific course up to the end of the Sophomore year. Here 
are two young men at the same point of their educational 
experience, having come to it by very difi"erent roads. We 

2 



i8 



will suppose at this point that both are put upon a difficult 
study, of which neither has had any previous trial, such, 
for example, as analytical mechanics or quantitative analysis 
in chemistry. Which of the two has the best chance for suc- 
cess in his pursuit of this study? I appeal to the professors 
of engineering and chemistry in this college to tell us which 
of these young men according to their experience is likely 
to succeed best. I venture that both of tht-m will testify 
that the chances are by far that the classically trained man 
will in the very field of scientific investigation outstrip the 
man who has been trained in what seemed the better scien- 
tific curriculum. 

In Prussia there are two classes of schools which prepare 
young men for the university — the Gyiiinasinvi and Real- 
sclutlc. The first has a thorough classical curriculum,* 
composed mainly of Latin, Greek, mathematics and the 
mother tongue. 

*The study plan of a German Gymnasium is given below. It is divided in- 
to six classes, the first four of which (VI, V, IV and III) are supposed to 
occupy each one year; the last two (II and I) occupy each two years. 





VI. 


V. 


IV. 


III. 


11. 


I. 


Religion 


3 

2 

lo 


3 

2 
10 

3 

2 

3 

2 
2 

3 


2 

2 

10 

6 

3 
3 

2 


2 

2 

10 

6 
2 
3 
3 

2 


2 

2 

10 
6 
2 

3 

4 

I 


2 


(Jerman 


3 
8 


Latin 


Greek 


6 


French 




2 


Geography and History 

Matlieniatics 


2 

4 


3 
4 
2 


Physics 


Natural History 

Drawing 


2 
2 
3 




Writing 




Hours per week 


28 


30 


30 


30 


30 


30 



^9 

The Reahchiile* on the other hand is a scientific prepar- 
atory school. It does not ignore the classics, especially 
Latin, but it substitutes for much of the work in classics a 
training in science. 

The graduates from these two classes of schools enter the 
universities on an equal footing, and take their lectures 
together from the same professors. There is here then an 
opportunity to observe the comparative efficiency of these 
two systems of preparation. In German university circles 
the subject has attracted wide attention. In 1880, Professor 
Hofmann, the eminent chemist, having been elected rector 
of the University of Berlin, devoted his inaugural address 
to a discussion of this subject. He gathered together the 
opinions of professors from all the German universities, and 
along with their testimony recounts his own experience in 
the department of chemistry. I will not detain you with 
a detailed statement of the discussion, but merely give you 
the conclusion to which Professor Hofmann| arrives. It is, 

* The curriculum of the first-class Realscluile is given below. In the Real- 
schule of the second class no Latin is included, and the time is occupied by 
more work in German, French and English. 



Religion 

German 

Latin 

French 

English 

Geography and History 

Physical Science 

Mathematics 

Writing 

Drawing 

Hours per week 



VI. 



V. 



IV. 



III. II 



30 



31 



32 



I. 



32 



t Nevertheless the total result of this great investigation cannot be a moment 
in doubt, and may be briefly summed up as follows : that the Rcahchule of the 
first rank, however generous acknowledgment may be due to what it has actu- 
ally accomplished, is nevertheless incapable of furnishing a preparation for 
academic studies equal to that offered by the Gyninasiuiii ; that the Realschiile 
lacks — this, for instance, is the opinion of the philosophical faculty in Berlin — 



20 

that as a preparation for university work the classical drill 
of the Gyvinasiiini is far more effectual than the scientific 
drill of the RealscJiulc; that the men from the former, 
even in the pursuit of scientific subjects in the university, 
show a decided superiority over those who might have been 
supposed to have received the more pertinent preparation. 

I do not think, therefore, that there can be a question as 
to the correctness of the position that the best preparation 
for entering on any one of the learned professions is a gen- 
eral education founded on the classics and mathematics, 
and rounded out by a liberal curriculum of history, litera- 
ture, natural science, social science and philosophy. If I 
wanted a good preacher I would wish him to have had such 
a preparation. If I needed a lawyer to manage a difficult 
case for me, I would feel safer if he had had his powers 
developed by such a training. If I were going to choose 
an engineer for a great railroad, I would of course first 
demand that he should possess the highest technical skill, 
but I would expect that he would be the better engineer, 
certainly a much better man of affairs, if he had had a 
liberal education of the kind described. 

But we must not forget that the college is not exclusively 
for those who design to enter learned professions. Every year 
the circle of college-bred men is widening so as to include 
men of every business and vocation in life. The culture and 
general knowledge which the college imparts, and especially 

a certain point about which all other branches may group themselves, while 
the Gynuiaiiiiin possesses such a point in the classical languages ; that all 
efforts to find a substitute for the classical languages, whether in mathematics, 
in the modern languages or in the natural sciences, have hitherto been unsuc- 
cessful; that after long and vain search we must always come back finally to 
the result of centuries of experience ; that the surest instrument that can be 
used in training the mind of youth is given in the study of the languages, the 
literature and the works of art of classical antiquity. According to the unani- 
mous judgment of experienced teachers in the department of mathematics and 
the natural sciences, graduates of the Realschule are almost without exception 
overtaken in the later semesters by students from the Gytnnasiitiit, however 
much they may excel them in the same branches in the first semester. [Inau- 
gural address of Dr. August Wilhelm Hofmann as Rector of Berlin University, 
1880. Translated by John Williams White, Boston, 1883, p. 31.] 



21 

the experience of the world which its associations afford, are 
valuable, not only to those who are to follow learned callings, 
but to the merchants and farmers, the mechanics and 
manufacturers, the bankers and politicians. The colleges 
therefore must not repel, but invite representatives of every 
class, and modify, if necessary, their plans of study to 
meet the wants of these various classes. I by no means 
affirm that we ought not to abate somewhat of the require- 
ments of the classical curriculum in deference to the different 
educational ends to be secured. I see no reason why in 
the same college we may not establish courses of study 
which shall be specially designed for those who desire a 
different or even a less thorough education. Modern lan- 
guages may receive more and ancient languages less atten- 
tion. The useful and industrial arts and modern literatures 
may very well be substituted for some of the requirements 
in classics, mathematics and metaphysics. It must, how- 
ever, be distinctly understood that this is done at the 
expense of the high intellectual training which is derived 
from the more exacting studies. 

I am ready to concede also that for certain of the scien- 
tific professions, such as the engineer, the chemist and the 
metallurgist, it is important at a not too late point in the 
course of study to direct the student to subjects whose dis- 
cipline shall prepare him for his special work. While the 
clergyman and the lawyer and the doctor will be best pre- 
pared for their future work by a good classical education, 
those preparing for scientific callings will receive more aid 
by a course which shall include the advanced mathematics 
or special laboratory practice. And yet I beg you to re- 
member that the standard of these scientific professions is 
being advanced year by year, and any man who expects to 
attain any creditable position in them must bring to his aid 
every possible advantage of training and preparation. And 
I commend to your consideration the thought that it is 
better to spend a few more years in laying a broad and firm 
foundation for your professional education, than to narrow 



your preparation down to flie barest necessities of )'our 
future calling. I am confident that even for the man who 
is to spend his life in scientific pursuits, the time would be 
well spent which he would employ in acquiring a thorough 
liberal education. 

A second question which is much discussed at the present 
time is this: "To what extent shall we allow elective 
studies in our college course?" The discussion of this 
question has been somewhat confused by assuming that the 
American college is the counterpart and equivalent of a 
German university. Assuming this, it is inferred that, 
because entire freedom is allowed in the choice of studies 
in a German university, that the same freedom ought to 
prevail in an American college. Now, as a matter of fact, 
the circumstances are very diff'erent. When a German 
student enters the university he is generally twenty years 
of age. He has been for nine or ten years under the disci- 
pline of a school curriculum to which our preparatory schools 
furnish no equivalent. He has had no options there in 
regard to studies, and no concessions on account of a dis- 
like of or want of capacity for particular studies. When he 
leaves the Gymnasium he is on a level not with the Ameri- 
can student entering the Freshman class of a college, but 
much more nearly with the young man finishing his Sopho- 
more year. In extent and exactness of scholarship, in mental 
discipline and in a developed sense of responsibility he stands 
on an entirely different plane from our young Freshman 
at the beginning of his college career. We must remember 
also that however free the choice of studies may be in a Ger- 
man university, there is no such freedom in the examinations 
by which the student obtains his degree. He may amuse 
himself as much as he pleases by attendance upon easy 
lectures and fascinating lecturers, but when he comes up for 
his degree he must prove attendance upon the lectures 
which go to make up that degree, and he must pass an 
examination which shall evince his complete mastery of the 
subjects included. 



23 

But we can never settle such questions by foreign prece- 
dents. The American college is an American institution. It 
has grown up on American soil and amid American environ- 
ments. We must settle our own policy and make our own 
precedents. I think I liave shown that the ordinary student, 
prepared to enter the Freshman class and no higher, is almost 
certain to be deficient in the discipline of his mental powers 
and deficient in the knowledge of those fundamental facts 
and principles which will enable him to enter successfully 
on the higher studies of a liberal education. The best use 
then that can be made of at least the first two years of his 
college course is to continue these disciplinary studies. I 
see no need of providing in these years for a wide range 
of optional studies. The drill that is good for one of the 
professions is good for another. The strength and supple- 
ness of muscle which fit a man for a soldier fit him as well 
for a fireman or a sailor. The vigor and alertness of mind 
which prepare a man to take up the special studies of the 
lawyer are just as necessary for him in the career of an 
engineer. These two years, therefore, may well be taken 
up with studies of common utility. Especially they should 
be used to give to the student a good mastery of the mother 
tongue in writing and speaking. They should introduce 
him into the elements of those descriptive sciences which 
may never be carried further than the elements with him, but 
which to this extent at least are the necessary equipment 
of every educated man. Along with the continued study 
of mathematics and of the classical languages, especially in 
their higher literary and philological rather than their gram- 
matical aspect, I would provide for the student a good 
course in rhetoric and English literature, with systematic 
and compulsory practice in original composition and the 
criticism of style. I would also give a continuous and 
entertaining, but not too profound a course in elementary 
science, which should include geology, zoology, botany and 
physiology. In all these subjects I would keep in mind 
that the course should be adapted to those who are to enter 



24 

upon varied professions in which a general knowledge of 
many things, rather than a minute knowledge of specialties, 
is the point to be aimed at. We have now put our young 
man on a sound and broad platform. He stands where the 
German youth stands when he leaves the GyinnasiiiDi, and 
a little ahead of the English youth when he leaves Eton or 
Rugby and goes to the university. 

The two years that yet remain may be dealt with some- 
what differently and with a different aim. The young man 
is older, his mind matured by natural growth and years of 
.systematic study. He is prepared to grapple with more 
difficult problems. His tastes and aptitudes may be sup- 
posed to have shown themselves. I would, therefore, give 
to these years a greater liberty and a wider range of studies. 
I would recognize differences of tastes and talents, and try 
to make the most of these differences. At the same time I 
would keep in mind that there are certain general and essen- 
tial subjects which should belong in every course and with- 
out which the college stamp ought never to be put on any 
student. I place among these the study of social science as 
developed in history, political economy and the elements of 
constitutional and international law. I place among them 
the study of the human mind as it has been wrought out 
by the great masters of thought from Plato down to Kant 
and Sir William Hamilton. I place in this category the 
study of the principles of right and duty and reverence as 
they have been formulated in works on moral philosophy 
and religious belief. In these studies I would have no 
options and no concessions. Outside of these I would 
provide for variations of talent by establishing elective 
courses of study. This may be accepted as the legitimate 
and appropriate recognition of that variety which God has 
made in the human mind as he has made in the human face. 
There should be a course for those whose aptitudes run in 
the direction of mathematics and science ; another for those 
whose aptitudes lie in the direction of language, .philology 
and philosophy, and another in history and political science. 



25 

The option should He between these organized, systematic 
courses of study, and the student having once made his 
choice should continue to the end. It is in this sense and 
with these limitations that elective studies have obtained a 
legitimate footing in all our colleges. 

I suppose the thought has frequently occurred to you 
during this discourse, — What, after all, is the necessity of 
this long and expensive preparation for entering on our 
professional studies? Can I not be admitted to the privi- 
leges of these professions without any such tedious proba- 
tion? And when after my four years of college training and 
my added professional education I am admitted to my pro- 
fession, am I not put on an equality with others who have 
submitted to no such course of probation, and have incurred 
no such expenditure of time and money? 

There is no question as to the reality of the grievances 
implied in these interrogatories. It is true that neither in the 
laws of the State, nor in the regulations established by the pro- 
fessions themselves, nor in the demands of public opinion 
which are often stronger than laws, is there any provision for 
an adequate preliminary education as a requisite for the pro- 
fessions. The story of the low standard of requirement for 
admission to the professions is a sad and humiliating one. I 
ought, perhaps, to except from this indictment the clerical 
profession. It must be admitted that in churches of almost 
'every denomination there is provision for an educated minis- 
try. But on the other hand look at the legal profession. 
Down to 1882 there was nothing in the rules of admission to 
the bar to prevent young men utterly uneducated from taking 
up the study of law, and after acquiring a little technical knowl- 
edge, appearing before the supreme court for examination 
and admission. In this way hundreds and thousands of 
young men found their way into the profession who had 
never seen a college or even an academy. The office boy, 
who made the fires and could barely read and write, picked 
up enough of the jargon of the courts and waded through 
a few elementary books, and then suddenly, about the time 



26 

he should have been entering college, he blossoms out as 
an attorney and counselor-at-law. In 1882 a little step in 
advance was taken. Under authority of a statute* the judges 
of the Court of Appeals were empowered to establish rules 
for admission to the bar. They dared not go very far in 
requiring a preliminary education. But they did specify 
that unless a student was a graduate of a college, he must, 
before entering on his legal clerkship, pass an examination 
in arithmetic, English grammar, geography, orthography, 
English and American history and English composition. 
This was not a great advance, but it has doubtless done 
something to stop the tide of ignorance which was rolling 
into the profession. How inadequate it is, we may safely 
appeal for an opinion to the learned and accomplished 
members of the legal profession who have gone out with 
the diploma of this venerable college. 

In the medical profession the case is even worse. The 
license law of 1880 provides that every person graduated 
from a legally incorporated medical college in the State is 
entitled to registry as a regular practitioner of medicine. 
There is no legal requirement as to preliminary education. 
It is left wholly to the medical colleges to determine what 
educational qualifications they will exact from those enter- 
ing upon their courses of lectures. 

There are twelve legally established medical colleges in 
active operation in this State. I have looked over the cata- 
logue of each one with reference to the literary qualifica- 
tions required for admission. Eive of them, including the 
oldest and largest, make no mention of any qualifications 
for admission. That is, they admit to the study of medi- 
cine everybody who asks admission, without any require- 
ment as to preliminary education. One requires " the sim- 
ple English branches ; " another, " a common-school educa- 
tion ; " another, "the branches considered necessary to fit 
for the study of medicine," but gives no intimation what 
these branches are ; another requires a certificate from the 

* Chap. 486, L. 1871. 



27 

medical preceptor and naively adds that the responsibility 
for the fitness of the entering student must rest with the 
preceptor ; one gives as the subject of a required entrance 
examination the four elementary branches and elementary 
physics ; another, the four elementary branches and algebra 
through simple equations, and two books of geometry, but 
waives examination on presentation of any kind of a school 
certificate ; and the last requires spelling, arithmetic, and 
Latin through declensions and conjugations ! Such is a 
summary of the requirements for admission to our medical 
colleges. In the best view of them, they amount only to a 
presumption that the students have a common-school educa- 
tion. Of course the great majority of the students in repu- 
table medical colleges have a much better preparation than 
that. Many are college graduates, many others have enjoyed 
the advantages of good academies. But the fact still 
remains that there is no barrier to prevent the medical 
profession from being entered by persons with little or no 
general culture, and with no discipline of mental powers 
except that which is to be derived from the study of their 
profession. 

I will not go through the details of the deficiencies of 
general culture in the other learned callings. In some the 
state of things is not so bad, and in some it is worse than 
that which I have detailed. The engineer on whose learning 
and skill depends the safety of millions of lives is required 
to submit to no tests of his competence or ability before 
undertaking the responsibilities of his profession. We 
employ men to build bridges for our railroads, engines for 
our ocean steamers, hoists for our mines, sewers for our 
streets and water-works for our cities, and are innocently 
content to trust to the laws of competition in trade to secure 
the exclusion of the incornpetent and the employment of 
those who know their business. I will only add that the 
restrictions the law imposes on those desiring to become 
teachers of our schools are of the most ineffectual sort, and 
even these are omitted in the case of those desiring to be- 



2 8 

come teachers in an academy Or a college. Any person, 
no matter how uncultured or ill-bred or unlearned, who can 
make terms with a board of trustees, may be put into one 
of our academies as a teacher or even as its principal. 

Hence I am ready to confess that, so far as legal restric- 
tions are concerned, and so far as the canons of the profes- 
sions themselves deal with the admission of new members, 
there is no special encouragement given to general scholar- 
ship. You, who have to-day received the diploma of this 
college, as well as the long line which during this commence- 
ment season is taking up its march from other colleges, must 
enter on your professions on an even footing with those 
who go from the log school-house or from the positions of 
offtce or stable boy. 

Well, are you afraid of such a competition? Is it for 
you who have had these four years of mental discipline, and 
have gathered in from professors and books these stores of 
knowledge, and had your wits sharpened by daily inter- 
course with men of culture; is it for you to shrink from a 
trial of your powers with the unlettered youth who come 
across the lots and enter the same field with you ? No, no, 
you must not whimper and complain after this fashion ; 
and I know you do not and will not. It is not rivalry and 
competition which you need fear. The real grievance is 
not a grievance personal to you. The harm done by the 
lax and inadequate conditions of admission to professional 
privileges consists in the demoralization of the profession 
itself. If you wish to keep up a high standard in a college 
society, you are careful as to the character of the men )^ou 
admit. If the legal or medical or any other profession 
wishes to stand well in the eyes of the community it must 
guard its avenues of admission with jealous watchfulness. 
Its members must think well of each other and well of 
themselves if they wish to be thought well of. It is fatal 
to this self-respect and fatal to the respect of others when 
men without character, or culture, or fitness find easy access 
to its honored prerogatives. 



After all it is not the members of the professions who 
have the greatest reason to complain of this low standard 
of culture and ability. The injury falls upon the public, 
for whose service and benefit they have been established. 
An engineer is employed to build a bridge. He is ignorant 
and incompetent, and some day his bridge gives way under 
a load of precious lives, which are sacrificed to the insuffi- 
cient regulations as to the qualifications of engineers. 

The other day a boy in Batavia died under the influence of 
a hypodermic injection of morphine, given by a regularly 
authorized medical practitioner. He was an ignorant coun- 
try doctor, who not long before had been a hostler and 
taken some short road into the profession, and had given 
the boy an overdose of the drug. 

A rich man wishes to place in his will a large benefaction 
for a great educational or charitable institution. He employs 
a cheap lawyer to draw his will, and his intended benefac- 
tion is lost in unsuccessful litigation. 

How are we to be protected against such fatalities and 
misfortunes? I mean we who belong to the plain people 
and are neither lawyers, nor doctors, nor engineers. I can- 
not tell whether this bridge will carry me over; it seems 
to my untutored eye strong and safe enough. The doctor, 
with his new diploma and his mysterious bottles and mystic 
prescriptions, seems to the common people among whom 
he practices a miracle of learning. How are they to know 
that he is an ignoramus or a quack? Think of the in- 
justice and absolute cruelty of giving the authority of law to 
the pretensions of such a man, and sending him out among 
these simple and trustful people, to be admitted to their 
homes, to be entrusted with the interests of life and health 
and to stand by them in their moments of weakness and 
agony ! It makes me indignant when I recount to myself 
the wickedness and criminal negligence which are involved 
in the present system of regulating these privileged profes- 
sions. The State owes it to itself, and especially educated 
men owe it to the State, to bring about a reform. 



30 

For what purpose have these professions been estabHshed 
and clothed with special privileges? Is it not that the. pub- 
lic may be benefited by having at their call men in whom 
they can confide? The legal profession, according to the 
theory of all judicial systems, is a branch of the -court, 
and is expected to give its aid in the administration of 
justice. Are the men that are admitted to the profession 
in the State of New York under the present lax and in- 
suflicient regulations, even according to the most charitable 
view, qualified for this high privilege? They are admitted 
within the bar and sit as supporters of the judge, and 
are authorized to take part in the august proceedings 
of the court. But is it not too often true that they are in 
no sense a support to justice, and neither in character, nor 
education, nor manners fitted to discountenance crime and 
add dignit}^ to the forms of law? We set apart a class 
of men to whom we grant a monopoly of the healing art. 
We say to them : You are entrusted with a great duty, and 
in order that you may be protected in its performance and 
have the motive and ambition to prepare yourselves for it, 
we confer on you an exclusive right to practice medicine. 
Have we no right in return for this franchise to demand 
that those who receive it shall prepare themselves fully and 
adequately? Why should not the laws of New York, like 
the laws of every civilized country in the world, require 
those desiring to enter these privileged professions to make 
proof before some State board of their ability to perform the 
duties pertaining to them ? And is it not reasonable that this 
preparation shall include not merely a familiarity with the 
routine duties of these professions, but an equipment of 
general knowledge and intellectual capabilities which will fit 
them to meet every emergency of their careers ? It is the very 
least that ought to be demanded of the candidates for pro- 
fessional privileges, that they shall have secured a college 
diploma before entering upon professional studies. There 
is no hardship or injustice in exacting such a requirement. 
There are in the State of New York twenty- two colleges 



31 

which confer the degree of bachelor of arts. They are 
open to every young man, rich or poor, high or low, who 
has the ambition to seek an education. They furnish this 
education at a price so far below its cost that in most cases 
it amounts to a gratuity. They offer to the young man 
who comes to them the use of their libraries, their apparatus, 
their buildings and grounds, and the services of the most 
learned and eminent instructors, and all this for an annual 
sum less than would be needed to board a horse at livery or 
keep a smoker in cigars. Furthermore, it is a real service 
which we render a young man to compel him to take the 
time for adequate preparation before entering his profes- 
sion. He is himself not aware until it is too late of the dis- 
advantage under which, without this preparation, he must 
labor through life. It was Milton who said that it is better 
to enter late on life than to enter unprepared. In the mere 
matter of saving time it is more economical to use the early 
years of life in making ready for our duties in advance than 
to undertake these duties prematurely and endeavor to pre- 
pare for them afterwards. Many a young man who has felt 
that it is a hardship to postpone for a single month his 
admission to the bar or his licensure as a doctor, finds that in 
the intervals of waiting for clients or patients he has abun- 
dance of time to have gone through college. 

There is only one remedy for this deplorable condition 
of things, — a remedy which every well-governed State must 
sooner or later discover and apply. This consists in amend- 
ing the system of licensing those entering the professions 
so as to insure the public against the intrusion of incom- 
petent persons. The first and simplest step would be to 
require a college education as a preliminary to entering 
upon professional studies. The second step would be to 
insist upon the right and prerogative of the State to license 
those who are to be entrusted with special professional priv- 
ileges. This license should be issued upon due proof, by 
examination or otherwise, of the adequate education and 
training of the candidate. 



32 

I need not point out that such a system would have an 
immediate and wholesome effect, not only on the professions 
in their relations to the community, but on the colleges in their 
relations to the professions. The college would then be fully 
invested with its most important and beneficent function. 
It would be, as by its organization and system of studies it 
is fitted to be, the recognized avenue of access to the 
learned professions. It would become the necessary instead 
of the optional and incidental resort of all those preparing 
for professional careers. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



019 615 869 8* 



